Scorose - New Year's Eve
by WICELA
Summary: At her last day of work of the year, Auror Malfoy shows up at her place, instead of Auror Potter. In the incredible misunfurtunate situation Rose's place has been snowed in and it was too late to do anything. Rose can't leave her house AND can't be left alone. New Year's Eve with Scorpius Malfoy – how interesting will that be?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 \\ New Year's Eve \\ WICELA  
><strong>Disclaimer<strong>: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only things I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.

**A/N**: I changed a whole lot of this and I hope you will like it more now :)

**Beta**: Codename Jellybean (who is just perfect)

* * *

><p>"Morning Weasley! Nice to see you in such a chippy mood!" Scorpius Malfoy was walking into her office.<p>

"Bugger off, Malfoy. I thought Albus said he would come?" Rose Weasley was sitting behind her desk and hoped that Al would appear behind Malfoy's back, saying: 'HA, you totally bought it, didn't you?' But none of that.

"He has taken the day off. Boy drama," Scorpius answered and Rose groaned. She already hated this day _without_ Malfoy being around.

"Again?" She muttered quietly.

"So and who are you going to kiss on New Year's Eve?" He smirked and Rose rolled her eyes.

"Shut your mouth and let me do my job, Malfoy. Your job will be a lot easier too, if you do so." She said, hoping that he finally would.

"I'm just making the best of it!" He protested, but kept immediately his mouth shut, when he saw Rose's face.

Since Rose became one of the best wizard lawyers of the time, and therefor had to defend the new generation of Death Eaters, she wasn't able to live safely. According to the law, everyone deserved a voice in the courtyard, and thereby a lawyer, but according to the people, Rose was a traitor. They thought that if she was dead, this new Death Eater group wouldn't be able to defend themselves, and would straight go to Azkaban. Some other people took that as a challenge.

"So I just have to sit here and wait for some people to attack me?" Scorpius asked.

"Grab a book if you like," Rose answered, concentrating on her case again.

It wasn't Rose's fault that she had to defend them, so the Ministry decided they would find an Auror to protect her. Rose was very angry at this at first. She didn't need a babysitter! She had been in the top three in her DADA class — defeated by Albus and Scorpius. In spite of that, she decided to make the best of it. When Auror Potter, better known as Al, walked into her living room, Rose couldn't be happier. They hadn't spent much time together since they both left Hogwarts, and now they would have the chance to catch up.

"Well, I must say Weasley, you look better than all those years ago in Hogwarts." Scorpius closed his book and winked at her.

"And you're still the same, shamefully," Rose said, turning a page. She grabbed her pencil to underline the words she was reading.

"I try to be nice, you know, for Al's sake," he tapped with his finger on the book. Rose knew that he was asking for her attention, but she didn't want to give him the satisfaction.

"Just keep your mouth shut!" She said for the second time. _Mary Dolohov — bastard daughter of Antonin Dolohov and a Muggle named Jenn Daisy — is the leader of the Knights of Walpurgis. _Rose underlined Antonin Dolohov and decided it would be time to talk to her father about this guy.

"Ey, Weasley, where is your boyfriend?" Scorpius sounded…almost nice, but Rose didn't buy it.

"I said: SHUT YOUR MOUTH!"

The truth was that Nick Finch-Fletcher had broken up with her. Rose wasn't that sad about it. He had been very clingy. He totally agreed with the Ministry that she needed an Auror to protect her, but when he heard that Albus's back-up was Scorpius Malfoy, he decided that _that_ wasn't going to happen. Rose didn't mind at the time — she didn't like the thought of Malfoy around her, — but later on she realized why Nick hated this idea. It had been a very complicated story, but in short, Nick had been afraid of her cheating on him, but in the end, he was actually the one who cheated. Now she was single again, and Nick wouldn't be there if Albus wouldn't show up. Which was why Malfoy was here. Rose realized that she should've known that Albus wouldn't come. The day before, they had been talking about his boyfriend-drama and Albus wasn't very happy that they were broken up again. They kept breaking up, because Albus was afraid to tell his parents he was gay — although they suspected it already. Rose hoped she got finally through him, because all this drama wasn't good for him — and her.

:: :: ::

While she red her case, Rose realized that Scorpius would also know these names. Antonin Dolohov, Thorfinn Rowle, Walden Macnair. His father and grandfather had…worked with those men. And now all those men had bastard children everywhere who turned out to be half-bloods. Half-bloods who wanted to finish what Voldemort had started. It wasn't exactly written like that — that would cause a one-way ticket to Azkaban, — but everyone knew that it was exactly like that, and Rose Weasley defended them.

"A bit ironic, this is, isn't it?" Rose said all over sudden. She stood up and walked with her mug out of her office.

"What exactly?" He asked, following her. He closed the book, and Rose saw that he really had been reading in the book she'd gave him.

"Coffee?" She asked him, walking into the kitchen.

"Yes, please." He answered, and she grabbed a mug for him out of her cupboard.

"Milk, sugar?" She asked, while she set coffee with the device her Granny Granger had given her.

"No thanks." Scorpius said, still curious of what she had to say. Rose pushed a button, and the device made a sound. She turned around when she began to speak.

"Well, I'm in this case, where I'm defending the new generation of Death Eaters. I defend them, while I'm the daughter of the people, who fought against Voldemort, and you protect me, as the son of an ex-Death Eater." She gave him his mug when the device was done, and walked back into her office.

"I'm simply doing my job, Weasley. Like you do. Like our parents did," Scorpius answered, but he wasn't that nice anymore. What she'd done, she didn't know, but she nodded, and sat down behind her desk.

"How late am I going to be done?" He asked annoyed. Rose saw he was halfway through her book. He was a quick-reader. She knew that already, she realized. At Hogwarts, he'd been quick too. Perhaps she could just send him home when he was done reading her book.

"Soon, I hope. My parents invited me at six and I can probably be there at five and they wouldn't mind. So four more hours, I think," she answered therefore.

"Who are you going to kiss at New Year's Eve?" Scorpius was his annoying-self again, unfortunately.

"Perhaps that question would be as interesting as, who _aren't _you going to kiss at New Year's Eve." Rose shouted back.

"Well that would be easy. You," he smirked, and she almost slapped him. The thought why she felt offended, really made her stop from doing it. Why did she felt offended anyways? She should've been happy he didn't want to kiss her.

"I told you before: shut your mouth Malfoy. Otherwise you won't kiss _anyone_ at New Year's Eve," she answered, instead of the slap. Not really the calm remark she wanted to make, but with the discussion going on in her head, she couldn't handle herself.

"Ouch, Weasley. After you gave me coffee, I thought we were beginning to become friends." He didn't mean it, Rose knew, because he still felt offended by her remark.

"You and I can never be friends, Malfoy. Way to complicated." With that, Scorpius stole her _Daily Prophet_, and Rose continued researching her case.

:: :: ::

"Five o'clock. Malfoy, time to bugger off," Rose decided. She was done with his remarks on everything in the _Daily Prophet_, and hated the fact that she slowly began to like the fact he wasn't one-of-a-kind — like Nick.

"I got the instructions, to bring you to a place where you would be safe and with other people, so you just have to wait for a few more minutes." Scorpius answered. Rose grumbled and walked into her bedroom.

"DON'T YOU DARE TO COME IN!" She shouted, while closing the door. After she put her dress on and opened her curtains, she was shocked.

"DAMN MERLIN!" She shouted.

"AM I ALLOWED TO COME IN NOW?" Malfoy shouted back. Well, perhaps he _was_ doing his job.

"NO. I'M COMING ALREADY!" Rose opened her door, and walked to her living room, dragging Malfoy along.

"Look at _that._" She pointed at the white area outside.

"That, Weasley, is called snow," Scorpius answered dryly.

"Yes of course it is, but we can't floo here, apparating is too dangerous for me, and I can't walk out of my house, because I'm snowed in." It wasn't the first time Rose cursed herself for not having a fireplace.

"So now you don't have a New Year's party, what a pity," Scorpius answered, clearly not realizing what this really meant.

"Well, you haven't got one too, because you're not allowed to leave either." Scorpius swore when he realized she was right, and breathed in and out.

"I need coffee." He said, and Rose rolled her eyes. She made some hot chocolate for herself, as they sat there on her couch.

"I must say, I didn't expect to ever sit here on your couch," Scorpius grinned.

"How funny you are. I'm going to send my family a patrones, so they won't have to worry." Rose stood up and thought about how she was going to survive this.

"I'll send one, much safer," Scorpius interrupted her and walked away.

After a few seconds, he was back and sat there again.

"Nice house you have," he said without emotion.

"I'm not going to be nice to you," Rose said stubbornly.

"C'mon, we're going to celebrate New Year's Eve together! Be a bit nice, Rose!" It was the first time she heard him saying 'Rose' when she was around. According to Albus, he sometimes called her Rose, too, when they were talking about her – Rose was especially curious, why they were talking about her, until she realized, he was Malfoy and not the time thinking about worthy.

"Shut your mouth," she answered.

"Please tell me, you got at least some food?" He begged.

"No! I would celebrate it at home, why should I?" Rose actually didn't know if she had some food, but if she had, he would be the last person to share it with.

"It's a bit pathetic, you still celebrate New Year's Eve at home, isn't it?" His remark came out of nothing, and was full of judgements.

"Perhaps for you it is, for me it's traditional. Everyone eat dinner at their homes and at nine o'clock we would all go to the Burrow to celebrate it there," Rose defended.

"And I imagine that everyone of your family is always present?" He said, like it was predictable.

"Vic and Teddy weren't a few years ago, because they were on their honeymoon. The year after, they wanted to spend it with their own little family, and nowadays, they spent it with us again. Also, you can say anything you want, about Do and Roxy, but they're the most loyal of us all. They are always there at New Year's Eve. Boy drama or no boy drama. Albus is mostly there for a few seconds, and than goes, because of Eric. James, Fred and Louis take their birds with them, until uncle Harry and Bill got upset with them about it. Uncle George wasn't upset at all, but they decided, they were all allowed to take two girls with them. James came rarely after that incident, but came last year with his actual girlfriend. Fred comes and goes the whole time and Louis got himself a girlfriend too, but celebrates it with her family. Molly and Lucy would rather read books, instead of celebrating New Year's Eve, but they walk in, just in time to say 'Happy New Year.' Lily and Hugo sometimes celebrate it with their friends, instead of with the family. And…that's all, I think?" Rose shut her mouth, realizing she had been rambling about her family again. To Scorpius Malfoy of all people.

"And you?" He answered, like she didn't bore him.

"Me? I celebrated it with Nick for a long time, but yeah, not anymore."

"Nick?" He knew Nick. Rose knew, that he knew Nick, and he also knew, that Nick had been her boyfriend.

"Nick Finch-Fletchley, reporter of the Daily Prophet?" Scorpius grinned.

"You wouldn't want to be called Nick Finch-Fletchley Weasley anyways." Rose rolled her eyes. Marrying Nick wasn't something she wanted to think about.

"Yeah, and I wouldn't want a boyfriend overprotecting, like he was. Did you never wonder, why you never had to fill in before? I mean, we both know that Albus isn't _that_ serious at work, when Eric and he got in some trouble again," Rose laughed softly.

"Well, I forgot, until this morning, that I was, actually, Albus back-up. It might slipped your attention, but I asked you earlier today where your boyfriend was." Scorpius raised a brow, pointing out, that this time, she wasn't able to ignore it.

"_Ex_-boyfriend, thank you very much. He was so protecting and jealous, that he didn't want you to protect me. Why he was afraid of that, I always wondered. Why would he think I would hook up with…_you_?! If I was going to cheat, I would do it with Frank Longbottom, or so. Or perhaps I wouldn't. Frank would hate me, and Helga would hit me really hard, and I wouldn't have friends anymore," Rose rambled.

"Who's Helga?" Scorpius asked surprised.

"Really, did you ever attend Hogwarts? Remember we were always fighting? Helga Jordan? Daughter of the best friend of my uncle George? Helga, daughter of one of the owners of Weasley Wizard Wheezes? That Helga?" Rose exclaimed. It was then, that she realized, she was talking with her hands again. She never did that in a casual conversation. She only did that, if she wanted to explain something, or wasn't thinking about it.

"Pff, I remember you, of course, from Hogwarts, but your friends and I never…talked. How should I know them? Who are my best friends for example?" Scorpius dared her, and Rose really wanted to win this dare.

"Al!" She exclaimed happily.

"And?" He asked, grinning.

"I…don't know?" Rose muttered.

"That's what I mean. You're no better than me!" Now he was as fiercely as she was just a few seconds ago. It was strange, talking to him like this. They were fiercely, but it wasn't pairing with hate.

"Well perhaps you're right. So Malfoy, what do you do during New Year's Eve nowadays?" Rose tried to change the subject. Why were they talking about her ex-boyfriend and friends anyways?

"With my family and a lot of family friends. Not at home, though. Al has been there sometimes, you know. _With_ Eric, of course." Scorpius rolled his eyes at the last sentence.

"I don't get it! Why doesn't he just _tell_ his parents he's gay? It's not like they don't know?" Rose answered, agreeing with the fact that Al could be so stupid.

"It's kinda hard for him, you know. His parents do know it, but his mother has been talking about grandchildren as soon as James stayed as 'loyal' as always after Hogwarts. Albus doesn't want to disappoint his mother by saying, he will never get any grandchildren!" Scorpius said, knowing that someone in the room had to defend Al.

"I know that aunt Ginny has been saying that, and she regretted it the minute she realized, he was gay. Besides: Lily is there too, and she will definitely get children. She will get a whole lot of them. Probably a thousand to begin with," Rose said, defending her point of view.

"And you?" Scorpius asked. Rose didn't know what to answer.

"I don't know. First a boyfriend, I hope." She hoped to lighten the situation.

"But you had one, not that long ago. You must have thought about it?" Scorpius pushed. She rolled her eyes.

"I think I would like to have children some day, but I never wanted children with Nick. They wouldn't get time to breath." And again, they were talking about her relationship with Nick, and even of having _children_. Still, Rose couldn't keep herself from wondering of…

"Do you want to have children?" He could have seen this question coming, but he hadn't, obviously. Immediately, he blushed a bit.

"Do I see a blush at the face of the big, beautiful, womanizer Scorpius Malfoy?" The blush was gone and he stirred.

"So what if I do? So what if I wished I would find a girl that actually likes me?" He answered with defense.

"It's not strange you would like that. I mean: we're twenty-five for Merlin's sake. Our nesting instincts are taking over," Rose said with some sarcasm. To her surprise, he was laughing at that.

"But seriously, why are you a womanizer, if you don't want to be?" She was actually wondering that, when he had said he wanted only one girl.

"Because I want people to like me, you know. To know me, for other reasons than 'The Ex-Death Eaters-son.' You proved it a few hours ago, that I can't walk anywhere without hearing something like that," Scorpius said and Rose finally realized why he felt offended. She bit her lip, knowing that what he had said there, was a very good point.

"Oops…I'm sorry," she said and he laughed.

"Well thanks. I accept your apology. I think that, when I started it all, it was just…I stepped into it, when I had the chance. It was better to be known as the womanizer, than the Ex-Death Eaters-son," he said softly. Rose liked it to see him like that. Soft, kind, less flirty.

"I get that, you know. Perhaps it's in a different way, but, people always see me as the daughter of Ron Weasley and Hermione Weasley-Granger. The fact that I love learning almost as much as my mother, and get good grades, is for everyone the reason that I'm 'The True Daughter Of,' you know? They don't see me, they see my parents. Everyone just…uses me. And somewhere, being on the other side in this case, than everyone expects from me, is just…a relief. Finally I'm doing something nobody expected of me. I disappointed a lot of people, while accepting the job, but it was something I had to do, so people would be able to see me as another person, instead of a copy," Rose said.

"Yeah, we're different from our parents," Scorpius nodded.

"Exactly! And I'm not going to accept it anymore!" They laughed for a while and sat there. Quiet, calm and accepting. It wasn't the first time they actually talked, but it was finally more than something that ended in a fight.

"Hey Rose?" Scorpius asked.

"Mmmm?" Rose said, while her head was resting on his shoulder.

"Do you think we will ever become friends?" He referred to the sarcastic remark he had made earlier, and her blunt remark.

"I don't know. Perhaps we already are," she answered in all honesty.

:: :: ::

Rose was opening some cupboards in her kitchen, while she was singing along with the music, Scorpius had found in her living room.

"YOU NEVER BELIEVE WHAT I'VE FOUND!" She screamed in an instance. When he walked into her kitchen, she did some happy-dance, and pointed at her cupboard.

"Food!" She said happily. He immediately grabbed it, and began to eat.

"Hey, me first!" Rose protested. They were behaving like they were friends since kindergarden. They actually knew each other from then — uncle Harry and Teddy's granny had set up a meeting between Teddy and Scorpius. Albus had been there too ,and there was instantly a connection between the two of them. Rose and he had a connection too — it was hate at first sight. It was different now. It seemed like they both were in this same problem, they got over themselves, and finally just talked to each other. Rose had learned his favorite colour — green — and he hers — blue. They were actually having fun, and were decorating Rose's Christmas tree. It was true that Christmas had been over for a few days, but when Scorpius heard that she hadn't had a Christmas tree, he said they could better be late, than do it never. Somewhere in her music-collection were some old Muggle CD's of her mother, who bought it when Rose was really young.

"DO THEY KNOW IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME AT ALL?" Rose sung along. Scorpius just watched her, and looked at her like she was crazy.

"What _is_ that?" He asked with horror.

"Muggle music. Christmas edition. This number is from the eighties, mum told me." Rose said happily. When the next number came, Rose quickly pressed the 'next'-button.

"What? Why are you skipping that one?" He pressed the 'previous'-button — Rose immediately regretted, that she had explained him how her radio worked.

"I…..don't want a lot for Christmas…" began the famous words from Mariah Carey. When she was younger, Rose dreamed on this number, that she would celebrate Christmas with her dream guy. She had skipped the number, because it was embarrassing. Scorpius wasn't _that_ bad and she finally got it why all the girls liked him. This number was just…ruining everything.

"This is…rubbish?" He asked, but when he saw Rose miming the song, he began to listen to the lyrics.

"ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU!" Her head became bright red and suddenly Rose realized what she was wearing. An old pair of jeans, her fathers Weasley-sweater — it was way to big and thereby the reason she wore it. She wore her comfy socks over her jeans. It was all very charming and when she looked at him, she saw a casual-but-a-bit-formal outfit.

"I'm…changing. Don't eat all the food. Be right back," she said, choosing to run away from the situation. Mariah Carey was still singing about how she wanted you for Christmas, and the tension in the living room became tenser. Awkward. With Scorpius. Malfoy. Scorpius. No Malfoy. Scorpius. Help?

Rose found a casual blue sweater, which was warm and properly, and her jeans were replaced by a black pair of trousers. She decided not to wear any shoes, but just socks, because it was just more comfy.

"Sometimes I forget I need to enjoy some parts of life, instead of just wearing what is lying on the ground," Rose explained, hoping it sounded like she was very busy instead of very lazy. Scorpius smiled at her.

"It's pretty," he said. Rose blushed and hoped he didn't tell her that, just to be nice.

"Thanks. I see the Christmas music decided to be over for today?" She chuckled when she heard her favorite band singing about potions.

"Yeah, well, I used your music player — which _isn't_ Muggle, luckily — to play some songs _I_ know," he laughed. They ate something and the Christmas-music-incident was over, Rose hoped.

At the end of the evening, they watched Rose's clock.

"Last minute of the year!" She smiled and he smiled, a bit awkward, back. The tension came back and when they counted the last seconds of the year, Rose didn't know what to do. Did she had to kiss him or hug him or do nothing at all?

"Happy New Year, Rose!" Scorpius said. He smiled at her.

"Happy New Year, Scorpius!" Rose answered. Awkward. She bit on her lip. Why was she disappointed that he didn't kiss her? Why did she feel this strange feeling inside her? When she looked up, she saw he had been staring to the ground as well.

"Eh, I'm sorry that this isn't the New Year's Eve you normally have." Rose decided to say. This wasn't hooking up with all the girls, like he was used to.

"No, don't…I never had the courage to just…do whatever I wanted at New Year's Eve, but now I finally did something else," Scorpius said.

"But it wasn't what you wanted, of course," Rose laughed, but she didn't mean it.

"Yeah, first it was…strange, but it was fun, wasn't it?" He laughed back, but it didn't sound real either. Why were they just a few hours ago talking like friends, and was it awkward now?

"Yeah…it was fun. Strange too, of course. Never spend this much time with you alone, of course." She just stammered something and regretted everything she said. It was awkward. They were awkward. But. They. Were. Awkward. A situation had to be awkward for both, to be really called awkward, James always said. So it was awkward for him, too? But why? Or was she overthinking it?

"Yeah, I think we needed time or something. We just were teenagers when we hated each other, and luckily, we can now look past that," Scorpius said, not looking at her.

"Of course, yeah. Eh, I'm sorry that I'm so boring, but I'm tired from work and…—O, _shit_, you need to _sleep_ here too, of course!" Rose sighted, but laughed at the same time. She was tired, confused, and this had to happen to her, of course, but she didn't want this to be awkward.

"I'll…eh…I'll manage." He said.

"No you won't, because the sheets are lying in my bedroom, so I'll help you," Rose laughed, but she still felt disappointed, and stood there to take the sheets, when she just wanted to say that he could lie with her. Crazy.

:: :: ::

An hour later she was really lying in her bed, feeling a bit awkward that Scorpius was lying a few inches from her. She almost fell asleep, when someone knocked softly on her door.

"Can I come in?" He asked.

"Mm yes…" she mumbled. She gasped when the light turned on, and she saw him standing there in only boxers. He was really fit. Not the over-the-top-really-big-six-pack fit, but the a-bit-a-six-pack-which-is-very-very-hot fit. She was just wearing her nightie, _without a bra_.

"Any resolutions for this year?" He asked grinningly.

"Being nicer to you, obviously," she murmured, as he sat down onto her bed.

"I like that one," he said, smirking. She rolled her eyes, but became bright red, because she didn't meant he would hear that.

"I just wanted to ask if you had another blanket for me, it's really cold there," he said half-flirty. Despite of the fact Rose _knew_, he could just conjure a warming-spell, and he could just put his shirt on, she didn't say anything about that. Despite of the fact, Rose actually had another blanket, she gave him a smirk.

"I haven't got any left," she said challenging.

"I'm going to steal your bed then." He kicked her out of her bed and placed himself under the sheets.

"You warmed it up, already," he grinned. Her bed was meant for two, thus she climbed into her bed again. He was in the middle of her bed, so she had to lie against him. He turned his body towards her, and smiled at her. He played with her hair, and Rose knew that this was how she supposed to feel with Nick. When he kissed her, she finally felt all the things Lily had asked her, when she told her, she had a relationship with Nick.

The next morning Rose woke up, feeling Scorpius holding her.

"NO WORRIES ROSE, I'M HERE ALREADY!" She heard Al scream. Scorpius woke up, clearly confused.

"What's happening?" He said with a sleepy voice.

"Well, I think we need to get decent and quick, because Al is here." She said, almost panicking. He was immediately awake, grinned and kissed her forehead.

"I will only leave if you agree to one thing," he said with a seducing smile.

"Which is?" Rose asked, knowing that this couldn't mean anything good.

"Will you go out with me?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 \\ New Year's Eve \\ WICELA

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only things I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.

**Beta**: Codename Jellybean

**A/N**: So I have a beta and that's great, but you will see which chapters she has been helping me with, if you see in this "information-box" the name of my beta :)

* * *

><p>"So? What happened?" Albus asked. He knew that Rose was just reading her case, over and over again, just to ignore him.<p>

"What do you mean?" Rose asked, turning the page of her case. She didn't really pay attention to him, while he just rolled his eyes.

"Really Rose? Are you going to try that one on me? You do know I know Scorpius my _entire_ life and thereby know perfectly well what is _sex-smirk_ is? Also, you have a whole different face too. A face that you mostly have, if you have had a rough night. It probably was a rough night, wasn't it? Albus said, grinning from ear to ear. He could see her blush spreading to cover her entire face, and quite a bit of her neck, too.

"And how's _your_ love-life? Have you told your parents yet?" Rose asked, giving him a dark smile. Albus's smile immediately faded away. She defeated him, again.

"No, I haven't, actually," he answered, blushing too. Rose groaned and this time it was her time to roll her eyes.

"Albus!" She shouted, trowing her arms in the air.

"Have you told your parents yet?" Albus asked, just to change the subject.

"Told my parents, what, exactly?" She asked, giving the 'what' some extra tone.

"Told them that you and Scorpius are dating, of course!" Albus laughed again.

"We're not dating!" Rose protested, while clearing her case up. She took a sip of her glass of water and hoped Albus would stop talking about it.

"I heard the last bit, okay? Before I smelled the sex inside your bedroom. Also: you could've just given him the kiss he obviously wanted," he continued, like it was completely logical to discuss her sex-life with him. They talked about everything, of course, but this kind of things had always been a bit awkward. Albus didn't know whether it was Scorpius that made it completely shameless for him to talk about it, or not.

"I've not…I'm not…I didn't…" Rose rambled, not knowing what to say.

"Really Al?" She just asked, looking a bit hurt.

"We don't date, okay? I said no, obviously," she answered at last, sounding disappointed of her own statement. Albus spitted his drink all over her desk, but didn't even bother to listen, while she groaned "Albus!"

"You said no?" Albus asked. To say he was surprised was perhaps a bit of an understatement. His mouth fell open and almost drooled. Of course he knew that Scorpius and Rose were his best friends and always fought, but it had felt good to see them together. It fit that well, that Albus couldn't even think about protesting.

"Why?" Albus asked, because he couldn't think of a reason Rose would say no.

"Well, it was probably just a one-time-thing for him — that's the only thing he does. Besides, it's not appropriate so soon after Nick," she exclaimed.

"Not appropriate? That's nonsense and you know it! You two weren't together when you actually were together. He was always with that silly girl and you weren't around either. From the beginning you two were just together for just being together. Scorpius will be different with you because the other girls he shags, don't have cousins like James and me," Albus defended. Why was Rose saying these kind of things to him? It was more than this and Albus knew it. He breathed in and out, and let it sink in.

"How did he react?" He asked, looking out of her window. Scorpius reaction would say everything about his feelings.

"Surprised, I guess? He isn't accustomed to hear 'no', probably. I know it's fake, Albus. You saw the last part, he wanted to convince me by kissing me. I'm not really falling for that one." Rose turned around and grabbed a book.

"You're screwing everything up, Rosie," Albus said dramatically.

"Yeah, well, you've no right to speak, Alby. There will be a day that Eric won't come back," she said, turning to her case again. This time, Albus didn't react.

:: :: ::

Albus was fully aware of what Rose had said to him and when he got home, he knew he would be alone.

"Eric?" He asked, just to be sure, and he felt like Eric had stabbed a knife into his heart.

_"It's almost New Year's Eve, Alb, how are we going to celebrate it?" Eric asked him and Albus almost choked._

_"Eh, Scorpius invited us?" Albus said, forcing a smile._

_"Again? Well, you know how much I like his parties, but I thought you'd said last year we were going to celebrate it with your family?" Eric gave him a hopeful look and when Albus looked down, he realized what was going on._

_"You haven't told them, have you?" He asked, but he knew that Albus didn't have to answer._

_"I'm so sorry, Eric, but you know my parents and…"_

_"I know your parents from the papers and the time you introduced me to them as 'a friend of yours'. That kind of things hurt, Albus. You've been there like, ten years or so? I've been convincing you to tell your parents — and how — for the same amount of years. I thought that getting together would make things easier for you, but it's just hurting _me_ more and more," Eric told him. Albus looked like he could cry anytime._

_"Eric, please…please don't. I will tell them, you know that!" Albus tried._

_"Yeah, well, you have been saying that since the beginning of all of this. I'm done, Albus. I'm not going to be in a relationship with someone who isn't out of the closet. Hell — I can't even hold your hand in public!" Eric said frustrated, looking away from Albus. He couldn't even look him in the eyes right now. The two guys weren't exactly the most emotional guys ever known. The fact that they both were close to crying, said something. Albus was by far the handsome one — although Eric wasn't exactly ugly either._

_"I know that, I'm working on it," Albus mumbled, but the second he'd said that, he realized he wouldn't._

_"That's not enough anymore, Albus. I can't do this anymore. I'm done — we're done." Eric walked away, taking his stuff with him. The door slammed shut, leaving behind a hollow silence that broke when Albus started crying._

They had met at Hogwarts. Eric had been one of the smartest of their year, but didn't stand out as much as Rose and Scorpius — as he was way less talkative and famous. They officially met somewhere near their second year, but according to what Eric had told him, he liked him the minute he saw him with the Sorting Hat. Eric completely came out of his comfort zone, when he asked Albus if he could help him. He had looked like someone who really needed help — that was how Eric had described him then. Albus described himself more as a really desperate person, not knowing what to do with all those people expecting everything of him. He wasn't as smart as Rose, he wasn't as good in Quidditch as James and even Lily, but he had been handsome.

They were in their fourth year, when Eric came out. Albus had found it really awkward in the beginning to accept that — he wasn't really sure about what he exactly was. Some weeks later began the chick-phase. Albus hung more and more around Scorpius, instead of Eric — they already were best friends, but because of Eric, they hadn't seen each other very often. He wasn't that bad as James, Fred, Louis and Scorpius even, but he had dated in two months, an amount of fifteen girls. It was over after that week and Albus had locked himself up into a broom closet. Eric found him. Eric comforted him. Eric _knew _what was 'wrong' with him.

Their relationship didn't start since they had both attended some lame reunion-Hogwarts party from a girl they both barely knew. In some drunk truth-or-dare game, they kissed and somehow ended up together at Eric's couch. The next day had been awkward, as Albus had to admit he hadn't told his parents, yet. Eric had said he didn't mind — he had to tell them when he was ready, — but now five years had passed and everybody in their area had a steady relationship, Eric wanted to make them official too. They almost lived together, but for the outside world, it looked like they were best friends — Scorpius came very often at his apartment too.

They were done. Eric and he were done. His empty apartment told him everything. The smell of food wasn't there. The heat and the mess that their fight had contained, was still there. It didn't feel right. Albus didn't bother to clean up the cups he had thrown at the ground. Today had been good, seeing Rose and laughing with — and at — her, but he knew he wasn't ready to completely give her all the attention she needed. He needed to work on his own problems now.

:: :: ::

Scorpius was sitting in his office, when his boss, Auror Potter Senior, came into his office. It was already very late, so Scorpius was surprised to see him.

"I guess Albus already told you, but I will inform you about your future job," he said, looking a bit stressed out. Albus hadn't told Scorpius — he would probably send him a letter soon, — but this was enough for Scorpius to know.

"You will be exchanging jobs with Albus. He will continue researching the case of the Knights of Walpurgis, while you will be looking out for Rose," his boss used his business voice while saying this. Scorpius groaned in his mind. His colleagues and he were finally at good terms about everything, so this would really be messed up. It wasn't the only reason he didn't want to do that job, though. After he had left last night, he couldn't stop thinking about her. When he had asked her out — in his mind a completely normal question, — she had said: "No, and you know why," while he clearly had no idea why. Well, he had an idea, but he thought she would know it would be different with her. Although…perhaps not. Normally he wouldn't think twice about it — there were more birds who dared to say no, — but this time was different. He knew that if he ever screwed up, it wouldn't be as easy to continue to the next one, with Albus being _their_ best friend.

"So, Scorpius, please take the job." Auror Potter smiled and held the paperwork in the air.

"Yeah, of course," Scorpius answered, while took the contract his boss handed him. He didn't read it. He just signed it and handed it back. His day couldn't be any worse, so a job he didn't want was something he could handle too, wasn't it?

"Oh, and Scorpius, can you please talk to Albus anytime soon? It looks like he doesn't want to talk to us and there is clearly something off…" His boss became more like the man Scorpius knew, the father of his best friend. He looked worried and it was clear that he didn't know what was happening inside of his son's head. It was true that Albus's mother knew that Al was gay, but it looked like his father wasn't that sure.

"Of course, but I think he doesn't want to anyone, anytime soon," Scorpius reacted. His boss smiled back and walked out if his office. It was almost midnight and Scorpius couldn't stop thinking about the other night. Rose…Rose…He needed to protect her of course! Scorpius's ability to relativize wasn't that good at this hour and he realized he had to read the conditions in his contract.

"_Accio copy of Scorpius Malfoy's contract!_" He said, holding the copy only a second later in his hand. Scorpius scanned the contract quickly.

_New protecting rules apply from the first of January_…

…_according to this case we will set some extra protective rules…_

_…day and night…_

_…shifts will only be changed if the Auror isn't capable of doing his job…_

_…at least a month of protection will be required before a new Auror will take over…_

Wait…what? At least _a month_?! A month of 24/7 protection of Rose Weasley?

"Auror Potter?" He asked, when he stepped into the office of his boss.

"Yes, Scorpius?" His boss said, while he yawned.

"Is it really necessary to be twenty-four seven present?" Scorpius said, hoping that his boss would say no.

"Well, you're able to sleep and go to family-meetings. Also you will continue your work on the case you already were working on — because we don't like you to be sitting there in front of her apartment, — but there will be rules. Rules like, you have live in the same house as Rose, so Rose only has to shout when something happens to her. You will communicate with your colleagues by different owls, and for important situations is a Patronus allowed. If you have to leave for short occasions — like a family gathering or illness, — one of your colleagues will be taking over for that day." His boss smiled at him, like he knew that this wouldn't be easy for him.

"This would be so much fun for Al," Scorpius sighted.

"Rose isn't that bad, Scorpius. Perhaps way too smart for her own good, but also really kind and giving when you know her better. I think the two of you could get along, if you were able to look past some things," he answered. Scorpius laughed in himself, when he realized that his boss was right. That night, they had been getting along. They had been looking past things, but then the morning came and it was like Rose realized that what she'd done was completely mental. Well, perhaps it was.

"Looks like Albus's letter is coming," Scorpius said, when he saw a familiar owl coming into the office. His boss smiled and hit his shoulder in a friendly way.

"Good luck, Scorpius," he said, while walking away. Scorpius opened the letter and red it quickly.

_Scorpius,_

_I'm sorry, but I'm thinking about all these things with Eric. I messed up, I really did. Perhaps I still have a chance, but I need time. Not sure what happened exactly between you and Rose — tell me everything, __soon__. Will you please look after my dearest cousin (and not sleeping with her and then ignoring her, like you do with your birds, admit it). I'll come back ASAP._

_Albus_

:: :: ::

Rose was almost sleeping, when she heard some noises coming from her kitchen. She was immediately awake and took her wand. Breathing in and out, she closed the door of her bedroom quietly and walked from her bedroom to her living room. There she saw a figure standing in the pitch-dark.

"Shit," was all Rose could hear. It was obviously a man, but she couldn't see anything else. If she turned just a bit further, she was able to hit him with a spell.

"_Stupify_," she whispered. The man was too late to use a protection spell and just fell down.

"_Lumos_," Rose said now, walking towards the man. His blond hair was the first thing catching Rose's eye.

"Shit," Rose reacted.

"_Rennervate_," she casted and he woke up.

"Well, that's what you call a perfect reaction, when someone walks into your house at night. It hurt a bit, but you did well, Rosie." Scorpius stood up and walked towards her kitchen.

"May I?" Rose didn't react, so he just grabbed a mug.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, slowly.

"Our dear friend has chosen to think about his lovelife, so he wouldn't be distracted while looking out for you. I'm taking over, for a month or so. Also: New Year, New Rules, so I will keep your company from Monday till Monday," he grinned and winked at her.

"You're kidding?" Rose asked.

"No, I'm not," his face wore quite a smirk and the only thing Rose wanted to do, was punching him.

"Well, suit yourself. I'm going to sleep," she murmured.

"And this time: stay in the damn living room!" She added.

"It wasn't like you complained?" He shouted back.

"Yeah, well, there was some alcohol involved and I would never do such a thing without alcohol," Rose was shouting too, now. _Stupid, stupid, stupid fool_, she thought. The owl at the framework of her window, let her groan.

"Stupid Al," she murmured under her breath. She opened the letter with anger and rolled her eyes.

_Rosie,_

_Eric and I will fix things, but I have to work for it. You'll have to work for your relationship with Scorpius, too. Don't be too hard and be your loving self. I know you can do this. I will be doing my job soon, but Eric first._

_With love, Al_

"Idiot. Asshole. Bloody, bloody, stupid fool!" Rose muttered, while Scorpius walked into her room.

"Who's the bad guy this time? Still me or is it someone else this time?" He said, grinning at her.

"Leave me alone, Malfoy! Just go to sleep or whatever," she answered. She was, again, in her pajamas, while he was taking her bedding from her closet.

"Ouch, Weasley. I thought we had a great night, the other night," he tried to cheer her up. The bedding were flying out of her bedroom now and Rose rolled her eyes. He could never do something the muggle way, could he.

"In your dreams," she answered weary. She stepped into her bed and then realized what she'd said.

"Oh, those dreams are _really_ special," he said smirking. Rose picked one of her pillows and smashed it towards his head. It missed, of course, by far.

"You forget I'm a really well trained Auror, roomie," he grinned and walked out of her room. Rose was almost sleeping, again, when he was walking into her room, again.

"We have to make house-rules some time," he said.

"Really looking forward to it, but let me sleep now," she answered sarcastically. She didn't want to look up, but as she didn't know if he left already, she did. He was indeed still standing there, with the moonlight shining on his well-trained stomach.

"Piss of Malfoy, and close the door," she groaned, while speaking towards her pillows.

"I'm gone already!" He laughed and with a soft noise, he really was gone. Leaving Rose behind, hating herself already. What was he doing to her?


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 \\ New Year's Eve \\ WICELA

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only things I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.

**Beta**: Codename Jellybean (she has looked at ⅔ part of this)

**A/N**: The last bit of this chapter is perhaps a bit dramatic, but having some serious fucked-up business going on in my personal life, I can't really help it. Hope you still enjoy it and think it suits the story :3 + I hope you remember Frank Longbottom and Helga Jordan from the first chapter. I don't like those characters where you hear from once and than it's like they never existed. If you forgot about them: they are friends with Rose. When Albus became a Slytherin, he wanted to catch up with Rose, but it was hard, because she was a Gryffindor (and yes there's a purpose of Rose being a Gryffindor instead of a Ravenclaw, where she also belongs). So instead of Rose being a loner, she stays with other people she knows slightly better than the rest of the people at Hogwarts: Frank Longbottom and Helga Jordan. Albus also befriend them, but that came more after Hogwarts. Albus and Scorpius have some other Slytherin friends, but I don't know if they're important enough for this story to mention already – as this story is written in mostly Rose's perspective. That being said, I do have a _QUESTION_ (with this being italic and stuff I hope that people who don't read an A/N will read this xD): Are you confused about the perspective changings? I do have put these dots (:: :: ::) so you understand when there should be an extra enter, because there's a new scene, but I like to be a bit mysterious about whose head you're "in". I don't mind writing "Rose's POV" if it would be less confusing, just let me now (you can always send me a message with tips :3)!

* * *

><p>"Rule number one: my living room isn't going to become your bedroom or anything similar. There's a room in here, which used to be Nick's office, but you surely can make it your office slash bedroom. Rule number two: I couldn't care less about your personal life, if you please use a <em>Muffliato<em> charm. Rule number three: my uncle sent me the contract you signed with some guiding rules. Just to be sure: you will never join me with family-events. It's bad enough that I get to see you every day. I can't handle a dad who talks before thinking. Rule number four: New Year's Eve never happened. Rule number five: we won't communicate in any way, except when there's no alternative. Rule number six…" Rose went on and on about her rules in _her_ house. She made quite clear that it was indeed _her_ house and that he was a _guest_. The only reason she didn't already kill him, was because he needed to protect her. Like she really needed his protection. She was more in need of protection against him.

"Yeah, yeah, are you done?" he asked and ticked on her desk. Why did he walk in already? Why did he think that she was kind?

"Shut it and get lost, Malfoy," Rose answered, waving to the door. She hated him. She hated what he did to her and she hated that she knew better. She knew that what they had on New Year's Eve was something she could never forget, nor compare to anything she was used to, but she knew she couldn't do it. She couldn't date someone like him! He would only leave her, because he couldn't handle her. That was what everyone did, even Nick. Why wouldn't he do that? Sighting in and out, turned Rose back to her work.

:: :: ::

Mary Dolohov was a woman of thirty-three, born in 1997. Nine years older then her, Rose thought. She attended Durmstrang from 2007 to 2014 with N.E.W.T.'s for DADA and – to Rose's surprise – Muggle studies. So this woman knew where she was talking about. She trained to become an Auror, but stopped in her last year to create the Knights of the Walpurgis. She did this, with her fellow-Auror-in-progress members Donald Rowle and Terra Macnair. They had the same story – bastard-children of Death Eaters – and this helped them to unite. Because of the fact the English Ministry of Magic had captured their fathers, they decided to go to England. Rose realized that she was right before. She really did needed to talk to her father, because he could tell her more about them. More facts she needed for her case. It didn't look good and Rose wanted to win this case really badly.

"MALFOY!" Rose screamed and searched in her house for him. When she found him, she saw that he'd found Nick's office.

"You are breaking rule number five…" he sing-songed. He grinned when he saw her face and threw her a kiss.

"Gross," Rose murmured, while glaring at her shoes.

"I need to see my father. He's probably working now, so I need to go to the Ministry. Firstly I want to check my house, just to be sure," she said in her official voice. Scorpius stopped being childish too and reacted immediately.

"That's not a possibility," he answered. He stepped from his desk and put his book away in the bookcase. Rose saw that he already had thrown all Nick's book away to use the space for his own books. The room was already some kind of home for him.

"When did you do this?" Rose asked him, ignoring the answer he gave her – it hadn't even been a question, she only informed him about it, because of his stupid job.

"My house elf brought my stuff here," he answered, playing nervously with the feather, which was still lying on his desk.

"My mother would kill you, but I'm not in the mood. So: we're going to the Ministry and we'll do that by car," Rose decided, turning around already. Ready to walk out of this room, towards the backdoor.

"I said: It's not a possibility," he answered again, while Rose rolled her eyes.

"Not a possibility is not an option. I need to speak with my father. In case you didn't notice: my job is much more complicated than babysitting a grown-up." She was angry now and grabbed quickly her stuff.

"It's not a possibility, because everyone I'm supposed to protect you from, is there. It's a possibility to talk to your father, but he has to come here," Scorpius explained.

"Oh, please. Some real action in your life would suit you. Last chance: step into my car or leave me alone."

:: :: ::

She had that kind of car that every muggle apparently wanted. _Morris Mini-Minor_ was how she called it. She had one in bright red, which was very ironic.

"My father bought it for me. He thought it would be funny to have a red one," she answered his thoughts.

"Everyone asks it – or wants to," she explained then and that was the moment there was a complete silence between the two of them. She was asking herself _why_ she said that or better: why did she even say something _nice_ to him! He was asking himself _how _she knew what he was thinking, although her explanation had been understandable. The car was a bit too small for his taste. He was slicing down the chair of the car, because otherwise he would hit the roof. He heard Rose grin, but she didn't mind him further. This time was for Scorpius the first time he could really look at Rose. He saw her freckles and the way they were almost moving. Her freckles were like stars; tiny and in their own way beautiful. Her red hair was short and in a hairstyle, his last girlfriend would call a bob. Scorpius hadn't seen her in a while and realized her hair was way more red than it had been before. Thorough their Hogwarts-years, it had already become redder and even darker. A picture of Rose with hair red as carrots flashed through his mind. How did he even remember that? While Rose was driving the car, the only thing Scorpius could think of was how _sexy_ it was. _NO!_ The warning bells in his head went off and Scorpius groaned internally. This wasn't falling in love with Rose Weasley. This was finding a new victim to seduce and he knew that he would ruin everything with his best friend if he would go for it. Rose wasn't disposable. Rose had to be a keeper.

:: :: ::

_Rose remembered her glass breaking, her sight fading away, her heart stopping. She stood still and didn't say anything. It was in line with expectations, but expecting something and experiencing something was something completely different. They had been arguing for ages, because of his protectiveness, but Rose loved it about him. She never expected them to marry, but she also thought he wouldn't cheat on her. He, who was afraid that she might cheat, cheated on her._

"Rose?" Her father looked worried when Rose didn't react.

"Huh?" she asked, while looking towards her left and right. She was sitting at the dining table of her parent's house. Scorpius was nowhere near and her parents and she were lunching.

"Sorry, didn't got a nice nap last night," she explained, while taking a bite of her toast.

"Is everything alright, Rosie?" her mother asked, paying only attention to her. Her father, however, was still eating.

"RONALD!" her mother cried angrily and with that, he stopped eating. A red blush filled his face.

"Yeah, some live-threats to my head, hiding the fact that I'm even existing, working on my case and realizing that I'm not over Nick. Perfectly fine," Rose said dryly, but at this point, her mother didn't like her sarcasm.

"Let's not forget that _Malfoy_ of all people is your protector!" Her father exclaimed, while using his fist to clarify his statement.

"Yeah, well, that was uncle Harry's idea, not mine," she answered. Still, it was nice to have her father on her side.

"I think he's perfectly fine for the job. Harry told me that Al's going through some personal problems, so he would be unable to do the job," her mother said, clearly defending Scorpius.

"Like Rose isn't going to some personal problems!" Her father began, while his head became redder and redder.

"Of course I could've _known_ that everything with my work would be hard, but sometimes it's just so hard!" Rose interrupted her parents. Despite that her mother defended Scorpius, she wanted to talk to her for a second. There would later on be time for the serious business of her case.

"Dad, can I talk to mum for a sec?" she asked and her father nodded.

"Don't murder Scorpius in that time!" her mother warned.

:: :: ::

"So what is this business with Nick?" her mother asked. Rose smiled. She should've known that her mother did hear everything.

"I thought I was over him, you know! I thought that I didn't mind at all that we broke up and that I never really loved him, but there happened something…and now I'm…not so sure anymore." Rose breathed slowly in and out while she said that. She didn't know where Scorpius was, but she didn't really mind. He was probably working on his own case anyways.

"What happened?" her mother asked. She took Rose's hand and smiled at her.

"I would've…I would've talked to Lily about this, but since she's gone…" Rose begun.

"…you're stuck with me?" her mother finished. Rose laughed and blushed.

"Well…yeah," she answered. Her mother laughed too and hugged her.

"You know, when your father and I were breaking up and getting back together so often in such a short time, I wasn't able to talk to your aunt Ginny about it. She was my best girl friend, but I couldn't possibly discus the problems I had with _her brother_! So I went to my mother about it and I realized that mothers have a different opinion about your love life than your friends. Perhaps I can help you better than Lily?" her mother said and Rose hugged her mother. She didn't talk often to her mother – mostly because she couldn't stand that her mother was smarter than her.

"Do you remember New Year's Eve?" Rose asked and her mother nodded.

"Well, Malfoy was at my house and we…kind of got drunk and ended up in bed together," she blushed, while her mother laughed silently at her awkwardness.

"You mean: the two of you had sex?" her mother asked casually and Rose's head became bright red.

"Yes! And it was…I don't know! I'm not going to talk about _that_ with you, mum! But anyways, I woke up the next morning and he asked me out. I said no, because it didn't feel right and since then I have flashbacks in my head about my relationship with Nick!" Rose said. Her shoulders lowered and she was relieved after saying that.

"You know, when you and Nick were together, we all had our doubts. Your father wanted you two to break up, because he didn't see a future. I stopped him, because I saw more. There was never a future between the two of you, but there was love and respect for each other. You weren't made for each other, but you were – in your own way – happy. The thing about your relationship with Nick is that you already knew that it wasn't right or fitting, but you didn't want to see it. When it was final, I think you were mostly disappointed, but not broken hearted, because you thought it was obvious that something like this would happen. Now is the moment that a potential other relationship is arriving, and you don't want to get hurt again. You and Nick might not have had the most epic relationship in the world, but that doesn't mean something like this wouldn't hurt. You need to give yourself some time, instead of sleeping with the first one who's offering," her mother smiled at her and Rose fell into her arms.

"Why are you so smart, mum!" she exclaimed and her mother laughed.

"You're not the first one who has great difficulties with relationships and excepting and embracing yourself," she laughed and gave her daughter a kiss on her hair.

:: :: ::

After Rose gathered some information about the Dolohov's from her father, Rose discovered that Scorpius had been in their living room. He'd talked to her mother while Rose talked to her father. In their ride back to Rose's house, they didn't say anything to each other. He was obviously still angry at her, leaving her house like that. She was only thinking about what her mother had said about her relationship with Nick. She had been right, Rose knew. Perhaps she'd never loved Nick, but she really cared for him and had been in love with him. It wasn't wrong to dwell on that. To give herself the time she needed to recover from that. It wasn't nothing, their break-up. They had been together for two years. Two years! The time they had secretly liked each other would make that two years even longer. Rose knew that she could say anything about Nick – he had been overprotective _and_ he cheated – but she knew he had been there for her in the past. Even when they were already bickering, he had been there. He had been the person who stood by her side, while she told the world that she would defend the Knights of Walpuris. It made her realize, that even though she hated him, there was a reason Nick cheated on her. It wasn't a one-way-problem, because she wasn't perfect too. It bothered her; because she was dying to know what it was, exactly, what Nick didn't like about her. That thing she did that made him cheat on her. When Rose parked her car in her garage, she didn't give Scorpius a second look. Walking into her house, she immediately run towards her bedroom. Not being able to hold it any longer, she quickly locked her door and sat down on her bed. The crying started and she couldn't help it. It wasn't wrong, she told herself. It was good to be broken for a day. To show her feelings, for one day. This was human nature.

:: :: ::

"Have you spoken to Rose, lately?" Frank asked Helga, while walking into the kitchen. He took some chicken from their fridge and decided to give his cooking skills a go.

"Seriously Frank? You're going to cook? You should know that you didn't inherit your mother's cooking skills as your sister did," Helga said, while shaking her head. As a precaution, she held her wand ready.

"Trusting me wouldn't hurt you, you know?" he said laughingly, while heating the chicken with his wand.

"Yeah, but burning your house would!" she answered. She stopped him, perfectly on time, and with that she avoided his house being on flames.

"Sometimes I ask myself what you eat when I'm not here," she said. Then she remembered what he'd asked her in the first place.

"Actually…I haven't spoken to Rose…" she said, surprised by her own statement. Although Rose was in trouble with everything and everybody and thereby locked in her own house, Helga had managed to come at least every Thursday to her house. It was strange, because it was Saturday already and last Thursday had been the third week they hadn't spoken to each other. Helga knew that it was her fault, because Rose wasn't able to visit or even write her, but she'd been busy too.

"I haven't spoken to her either. What about we visit her Monday?" Frank asked, interrupting her thoughts.

"Monday? In the evening, if that's alright with you?" Helga answered and he nodded.

"By the way: when you're not here I'm starving to death or I'm ordering something," he grinned.

"That's so unhealthy! You really should eat less unhealthy stuff and more of the healthy stuff like vegetables!" she groaned. Looking at him, she just shook her head disapprovingly.

"You are an Auror, Frank! You have a reputation to hold! Getting fat is the worst you can do to yourself right now!" She said. Being a Healer, she knew everything of the best way in order to keep a good condition.

"I know the perfect way to lose weight," Frank said smirking. Helga rolled her eyes.

"Not now, Frank, look at the chicken!" she tried to distract him, but it didn't work. If Frank had an idea, he always _had_ to go for it. He threw her over his shoulder and walked her to the bedroom.

"Fra-nk!" she protested, although she didn't really mean it. He stopped her by kissing her softly.

"Is that all you got?" she asked. He looked at her and she tried to look as sexy as possible. He groaned softly and crushed his lips onto hers.

:: :: ::

"Helga?" he asked, when they were quietly lying in his bed. She was lying in his arms and played with her dark hair.

"Mmm?" she mumbled back, still in the bubble of thoughts of what just happened. She was happy and in that moment, genuinely happy. He gave her a soft kiss on the top of her head. She heard a soft murmur, which she couldn't understand. Looking up, she saw he was blushing. She sat up immediately and her hand went to his cheek.

"What's up?" she asked softly and he smiled at her.

"I want you to move in," he answered. He looked into her eyes, hoping to catch her reaction. She smiled and leaned against him.

"It's not a question?" she asked him, grinning a bit. His face relaxed and he grinned too.

"Nah," he said. His hands were on her leg and he made circles with his finger on her leg.

"Why?" she asked. She knew that they had been together since Hogwarts and talked about the future, but they had never talked about…_them_ in the future.

"Because your flat isn't yours, but you share it with, like seven people and that's really annoying," he began. Helga laughed at one particular memory that proved why Frank hated her flat. When she lived there for a few months, she and Frank hadn't seen each other in the same amount of months. They had missed each other really much, so when Frank came over to see her, Helga couldn't be happier. Because Helga had failed to tell him that there lived some other people in her flat, he had been lucky that Helga had been the one to open the door. She didn't realized that until they were almost in her bedroom, while heavily snogging, when her roommates had decided to switch rooms again. Luckily for them – _and _for Kelsey, – Kelsey had been able to stop them, before they did something they really didn't want to share with anyone else then the both of them. That and a lot of the same kind of situations happened every time Frank visited Helga and he hated it.

"Also, your flat is miles away from mine, so I don't even see you in a rush and I would rather see your face for a second than not at all," he continued. She thought about that and she knew it was true. Their jobs were so far separated, that they would only see each other if he was hurt or they would have the time to see each other. With overtime work, family and other friends they didn't see very often too, they had barely time for each other. Helga craved to only see him for a second, because this was killing them. Their relationship was so much more than only physical, but with all that, the only way they could show their love for each other, was…their physical love.

"I just want to see you lying next to me when I wake up," Frank admitted. "It is killing me that I don't see you for months and we live in the same city for Merlin's sake!"

"So you want to live in your tiny flat, together?" Helga asked. She really wanted him to say no. It was a terrible neighborhood, but it had been perfect when he came to live there, because it was cheap. If they were living together, Helga thought, they would be able to buy something more expensive and less dirty.

"No of course not, I already bought a house we can live in," he said. His voice wasn't as secure as before and Helga knew why. She wasn't the kind of girl who loved it when a man did something big for her without asking. Something like painting her walls green, because she mentioned before she loved green. With remarks like that, she didn't mean to say that that person needed to paint her walls, but just that she loved green. Helga liked to think that she was less complicated by being like this. Frank knew this and he'd never done something big like that – he'd learned it by doing small things wrong, years ago. Helga knew that he would be afraid that this was too much. That buying a house for them would be something she wanted to decide with him. It was true, it was something big and she really did want to decide something like this with him - how would he even know she wanted to move in with him? Despite that, Helga knew she could trust Frank and this was his way to tell her that he loved her. How couldn't she accept that?

"What does it look like?" she asked. With a smile, he showed her some pictures. It was a tiny, but a cozy house in the middle of magical London.

"There's a fireplace and we're able to apparate in- and outside our house. Visitors who apparate, will automatically go to the front door and we can give a few people our key," he explained.

"Do we have a key? Like…muggle-style?" Helga asked with wide eyes.

"Yeah, it's a new, upcoming trend," he answered. She smiled and hit her arms around him.

"Does that mean you like it?" he asked. Helga shook her head and kissed him.

"No," she said, "I love it!"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 \\ New Year's Eve \\ WICELA

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only things I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.

**Beta**: CJ

* * *

><p>"WE'RE HERE FOR ROSE, YOU ASSHOLE, LET US IN!" Rose recognized the voice of her best friend Helga and woke up immediately. She realized she had been sleeping when she saw a bit of drool on her case. She murmured quickly a cleaning spell so that Scorpius wouldn't see it. He would only laugh at her and Rose couldn't have that for a while. Ever since they visited her parents, they didn't talk to each other. The only sentences they exchanged were about things they needed or insults. Rose's clock declared it was Monday evening, nine p.m.<p>

"I AM HELGA JORDAN, YOU PAIN IN THE ARSE, NOW LET ME IN!" Helga screamed. Rose knew she was about to get really mad and saw it as her sign to go to the front door. She smiled as she saw her best friends standing there. Frank was a bit scared, obviously by Helga, who was extremely mad with Scorpius.

"Rose, finally! I almost thought he kidnapped you!" Helga said, but before she could run to her best friend, Scorpius stopped her – again.

"Malfoy, back off, they are my friends," Rose said, while rolling her eyes.

"How do you know they didn't use polyjuice potion?" Scorpius said to her, while he turned around.

"Because I know how my best friend is like, unlike some other people," she answered. She turned to Helga and Frank and immediately smiled.

"I haven't seen you two in like forever! Why are you still outside!" Rose hugged the two and pushed them into her living room. Scorpius stood at the corner of her living room, not knowing what to do.

"Malfoy, you can leave. I'm with my friends; nothing bad is going to happen! Merlin, Al would be so much easier with these kind of things!" Rose said. Helga and Frank sat down on her couch and Rose went to the kitchen to bring some drinks. When she walked back to her living room, she looked at her friends and laughed a bit. They were here, at her house, being friends. Of course they were lovers too, but this…this behavior was her favorite when they were around her. Instead of being an awkward couple that couldn't stop kissing, smiling or even looking at each other, Frank and Helga were able to be normal and be friends.

"So, what is Malfoy doing here?" Frank asked, when he took a sip of his butterbeer.

"He's being my bodyguard, since Al and Eric broke up and Al wasn't able to keep his shit together," Rose answered. She lowered herself on her comfy chair and rolled her eyes.

"It's really annoying and I miss Al already. Can you imagine? Me missing Al?" She exclaimed.

"He clearly didn't remember me from Hogwarts, otherwise he would've let us in!" Helga grumbled. She brought a tuft of hair back to the place it belonged and gave Rose a pitiful look.

"Yeah, we talked about that and the minute I said your name, he was like: Who in Merlin's name is that? Besides, I don't think he would let anyone in, even if it would be my father or uncle Harry. He thinks this job is so boring that when the moment to do something pops up, he's overprotective," Rose complained, although she knew it was unreasonable to complain. She was safe now and that was all she needed.

"Well, he's trying to protect you and from what I hear, he's doing his job in the right way. Al is very positive about him too," Frank said.

"Frank! You know it's Malfoy we're talking about!" Helga said irritated. She gave Frank an angry look, while he just shrugged.

"I know him from work. We work together with Al and a few others on a project," Frank explained, but Helga still wasn't pleased.

"Why didn't you tell me you were all buddy-buddy with Malfoy? He wasn't very nice to you either, so why should you be nice to him?" Helga argued.

"Well, because we have to take our job very seriously and polyjuice potion is like butterbeer for us: we have to see through every little thing that happens, otherwise we can be fooled," Frank said. He sighted and hugged Helga lightly.

"I saw he was surprised to see me, because firstly, he didn't know we were together. Or at least, I never told him. Secondly we aren't buddy-buddy, but colleagues and have experienced some tuff things with our group. That makes our group strong. So don't be like that, especially not now!" he added. Rose looked from one to another and from their exciting looks, she could read there was something going on in their lives that she wasn't aware of.

"What are you two not telling me?" She asked, laughing a bit at their enthusiasm and how they both blushed.

"We're going to live together!" Helga exclaimed happily. The smile on her face couldn't be any brighter and Rose was genuinely happy for the two of them.

"Congratulations! Where are you going to live?" she asked immediately.

"Because of the paperwork, I'm moving in with Frank first and then we will live in the middle of London!" Helga said. She bumped up and down on Rose's bench and her head was red – as red as possible for Helga, as she was a true Jordan.

"That's so awesome guys!" Rose said. She stood up to hug the both of them.

"Being apart didn't work out," Frank said and Rose laughed at him.

"Yeah, I remember that feeling with Nick. Living together is such a relieve then!" She said. After mentioning his name, she smiled weakly. It was still bothering her. She sighted for a sec, realizing that she had ruined their moods.

"Rose, speaking of Nick: how are you? I have never been more of a bad friend than after you and Nick broke up. I know we both were busy, but I never…took the time to ask you how you were!" Helga said. Her face was way more serious now and Rose sighted.

"I don't know. I'm not over him, you know! We…we lived together. We were that far! It's not something I would easily give up. We both made mistakes and now we're over, but that doesn't mean the feeling is completely gone." Saying that, Rose realized that she could get in peace with herself. Although she said before that one moment was enough to cry over Nick, it perhaps wasn't enough to be over Nick.

"It's okay, Rose. We never really supported your relationship, but we accepted it and so we accept your grieve. If you wouldn't cry or feel anything at all, you would be heartless. Luckily you aren't," Helga said. She smiled at her friend.

"I really want to be your friend right now, but I think Helga is better with this kind of stuff, Rose. Perhaps I need to leave you two alone," Frank said. He rubbed her back, kissed her hair and left the room.

"You can let your guard down now, Rose, I'm your friend and there are no boys here," Helga said. She stood up to take Rose's hand and to push her onto the couch. There, she was able to hug her and let Rose be herself with her full support.

:: :: ::

"Leaving so soon, Longbottom?" Scorpius asked when Frank walked into the kitchen.

"Malfoy, it is creepy to overhear the conversations of a girl and her friends," Frank answered.

"Yeah, well, I need to keep an eye on her. You know what Potter will say if Weasley would be dead by now," Scorpius explained. Frank laughed and got himself a drink.

"Something between the lines: 'You know we can't trust anyone! This is serious business and you should've checked them on the use of polyjuice potion!'" Frank said. Knowing his boss as his actual boss and a family friend, he knew that this kind of situations were extra hard for him. Personal life mixed up with your work, that was something that never really worked.

"Something like that," Scorpius laughed.

"Strange, to live with your enemy, hmm?" Frank asked, referring to Hogwarts. Scorpius and Frank never got really along either, but they didn't hate each other as much as Rose and Scorpius hated each other. In some ways, it was easier to be a guy. No guy ever holds a grudge as long as a girl.

"Strange to protect her. As far as I'm concerned, all her scars are from our fights. It's strange now, I mean: I don't hate her, but still…the scars are still at the same place. It isn't over, if you know what I mean," Scorpius said. Scorpius had never been so honest to someone, until he met Albus. After Hogwarts and their Auror training, they ended in the same group of guys as colleagues. They had survived cases close to hell, which really had bonded them. It was why Scorpius trusted Frank. He could talk to him about this stuff.

"I get it. There was so much tension between the two of you. Actually, there still is. I think you two will always fight, but I also think there's more than that," Frank added. He leaned against the kitchen table and Scorpius got himself a drink too.

"You know about New Year's Eve?" Scorpius asked him.

"That you were here, instead of Al? Yeah," Frank said.

"We actually talked to each other and she gave me a chance and I gave her a chance. We were honest with each other and got together that night, but since then she's refusing every single time that I'm not even close to offering and I hate it. Because I know that we don't know each other very well than the things we don't like, or that we couldn't get along in the past, but I don't care. I want to get to know her and stuff, because I…kinda begin to like her!" Scorpius exclaimed. A red blush filled his face for a second, but then he cooled down and it flew away.

"Wow, an one night stand? On New Year's Eve? That's…risky. You must know that Rose is a mess right now – but you probably already knew that, as you were listening to everything we said. We all didn't like Nick, but Rose isn't as coldhearted as everyone thinks she is. On top of that she has her job and the fact that she's in need of a bodyguard – if she dislikes one thing, it's that she isn't able to protect herself. She's insecure, Malfoy, and I would really beware of your feelings and saying those things. Firstly, try to talk to her, because I really think that if she moves on and let it go, she's able to see what is happening here. Secondly, be patient. Rose needs her time and it's only for the best." Frank patted his friend on the shoulder and laughed.

"Didn't expect you to be such a sucker for love, Malfoy!" He joked.

"Hey, I never said love!" Malfoy defended laughing.

:: :: ::

"Teddy, what would you do if you were gay and you have boyfriend, but your parents don't know about all that and your boyfriend wants you to come out, because he loves you that much that he can't live with the fact that you have to hide your love, but you think you aren't ready for it?" Albus asked Teddy. Teddy visited him the minute he'd heard from his father that he wasn't all right.

"Well, firstly, I'm not gay, secondly, I don't have a boyfriend and thirdly, I don't have parents. Also, fourthly, I'm engaged. With your cousin. Girl cousin. I don't think this is ever going to happen to me, but if you want to say something, Al, just say it," Teddy answered. Albus groaned, but knew he had to tell Teddy about himself. No one was less judgmental than Teddy. Having werewolfblood, – and thereby sometimes a bit extremely angry – being a metamorphmagus and having no parents, helped him become this person. People always judged him and he hated it so much, that he stopped judging people, or he judged people as little as possible.

"I am gay, Ted," Al said. He sighted. It was out in the open and now Teddy knew.

"I'm proud of you, Al," Teddy said. He smiled at him and didn't say anything about how much he expected that already.

"Mum and dad don't know about it and I hate that, but I don't know what to do. I don't want to lose Eric, but I also don't want to start a fight or tension in the family!" he said. Teddy just nodded and let him speak.

"Eric and I have been together since…since forever and I hate our fights and I get why he doesn't want to hide anymore. It's just…I don't want to…I mean…you know the family!" Al stopped talking and sighted. He was sitting on the couch. The couch where Eric and he never sat so quietly as he sat there right now. Teddy sat on the chair he always sat on when he visited…them. Eric and he lived together, but, lucky for them, his parents always announced when they were coming. Most of that time, Eric wasn't there or in the background. Teddy shifted on his seat and took a sip of his drink.

"Al, you have to do what you want, because it's your life. Besides, you told me about Rose and Scorpius. I don't think you will be the only one to shock the family." Teddy grinned. Albus laughed with him. Slowly, but with every second more genuine.

"She hates me. I know it. I spoke Frank a while ago and he said that Rose's feelings are fucked up. It clearly doesn't help that Scorpius is with her and from what Frank told me, Scorpius is already falling," Albus announced. Teddy grinned and ran a hand through his hair.

"It doesn't surprise me. Do you remember when Rose first met him? They were like enemies from the beginning, which was only a laugh for Ron and Draco, of course." Teddy smiled.

"You can call him _Draco_?" Albus said surprised.

"Well, he's my cousin or something like that, of course. You know, his mother and my grandmother were sisters, so that makes them family," he answered. Albus looked up, surprised.

"So that was why they insisted on meeting Scorpius?" he asked and Teddy nodded.

"You know your father; nothing is more important than family. They didn't expect that in the end, you and Scorpius would become best friends," he grinned again. Albus put his glasses back on and smiled at Teddy.

"Don't you ever wonder how the real you looks like?" he asked.

"You know: changing my looks costs energy, so when I'm tired, I know what I look like and most of the time I don't want to hide that," Teddy answered. His blue hair was a bit too long, Albus saw, but he laughed widely.

"I think my natural color is blue or turquoise. I'm not sure, but I quite like it. It's as strange as the ginger curse that reigns your family," Teddy said and Albus hit him.

"Lucky for me I inherited my father's hair!" he answered.

"Lily must feel like the lonely ginger in your family," Teddy joked, before realizing what he had said. It was suddenly quiet in the room and for a while, none of them dared to speak.

"How is she?" Teddy asked, breaking the silence.

"I don't know. Haven't talked to her in a while," Albus answered. Looking at his mug, he realized how stupid he was. Drowning because of a boy, instead of looking out for his only sister.

:: :: ::

Rose sat in her bedroom for a while when her best friends had left. She thought about what they had said and the guy who was living in the same house as her. She never thought they would live together – even if it was because of this. She rolled the sleeve of her shirt up and there it was. On the inside of her upper arm was a big scar. Her arms had been in the air when he had placed an injury on her arm that was that bad, that it left a scar. Touching it, made her shiver. There was a time at Hogwarts that they really hated each other that much, that they would only hurt each other. It had never been so notable that the Headmaster needed to be informed. For most people, they just didn't like each other very much. It had begun in the time where Rose became much more aware of herself. Before that, she hated Malfoy all along, but mostly avoided him. When she became aware of herself and the fact that perhaps she wasn't that ugly, she decided to strike back. She hadn't been the brave Gryffindor, just so she could see how that Slytherin hated her. After the summer, their fourth year began and Lily had persuaded Rose on buying make-up and stuff to make her hair look better. The glasses had been replaced by contact lenses and her shy smile became a genuine smile. The fighting hadn't been that bad, as it were only words. The next summer, Rose was assigned to spend her holiday with her cousins Dominique and Roxanne – better known as Do and Rox. Do had been the first one in their family to enter Slytherin and after that, everybody knew that Rox would follow her. They weren't like the mean or pure blood supporters as Rose's father had been saying. Uncle Harry had told them that Slytherin's traits were cunning, resourcefulness and ambition. They would consider their options before acting and were mostly seen as strong leaders. Even her father had changed his opinion about Slytherin in general, because of Do, Rox and later of Al. His opinion about Malfoy's didn't change, so in the end, nothing really changed. Do and Rox had been really un-lady-like, as aunt Fleur liked to call it. As much as Victoire loved to dress up, Do hated it. Nobody really understood how they were such opposites, but able to get along well despite that. They used to fight like every minute of the day, but as they grow older, they started to respect each other's choices and stopped. Do remained the same adventures woman as Victoire remained the princess. Rox had always looked up at her big niece. Although they diverged one or two years, Do was always the older one. Later on, they became more like equals and nowadays, Do works with uncle Charlie with dragons in Romania and Rox works with her dad, uncle George, in the shop. Although Rox didn't really work in the shop, but designed new material. In the summer before Rose's fifth year began, Do and Rox had planned a holiday together, but due to circumstances, which Rose didn't even remember, Rose went with them. There she learned how to look good, but still powerful and cool. After that summer, Rose was almost a gothic ginger. That phase stopped quickly, as she thought it was too dark, but she went on with the attitude. Rose wasn't afraid to fight and this time, injuries were following. Rose remembered the first time they fought really well. Scorpius had seen her as 'Al's little girl cousin' and didn't expect her to really fight. Suddenly, she started to fight and she used a spell that broke his arm. He immediately used _levicorpus_ on her. In his anger, he casted the spell that had left the scar. Both of them were scared by the amount of blood that came out of her arm. To proud to cry, Rose had run quickly to the hospital wing where Hannah Longbottom worked. Knowing that the entire family would hear what happened, Rose told her that she'd practiced a spell and it went wrong. Above that, she had fallen to the ground by seeing the blood. Madam Longbottom had been a bit skeptical about the whole story, but decided to let it go and to nurse her. When Rose became aware that this injury would leave a scar, she decided that this, whatever it was, wasn't over. So she took her wand with her and surprised him. Over and over again. In the end it came down to sixteen broken bones and seven scars. In order to stay alive, Rose had a pact with Madam Longbottom. She wouldn't tell anyone about what the real reason behind those injuries were – when Scorpius and she came in her wing like every week, she started to see a pattern – and Rose would try to get hold of herself. In their seventh year, they ended as two sworn, but unnoticed enemies and Rose thought it would stay like that. She didn't expect them to see each other that much, only because of Al. Above that, she didn't expect them to sleep together, just because they had to stick together at New Year's Eve. On top of that, she didn't expect to feel something afterwards. Rose thought it had been guilt. Guilt towards Nick. Guilt towards Al. She really thought she couldn't be more messed up, but that was before she'd talked to Helga. Talking to Helga made her realize that there could be something going on.

No, she told herself. _No!_ This was _not_ going to happen. It had been good to refuse him when he asked her out. Why didn't she refuse him before that? Now she wasn't able to forget him. His smell, his looks, his body. How good he had felt and how much she had wanted him at that moment. How nothing she'd ever experienced could compare to this.

No. She wasn't like that and she had to stop. She had to think about the scars they had given to each other. The hate they shared. That was the only real thing about them.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 \\ New Year's Eve \\ WICELA

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only things I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.

**A/N**: I'm so sorry for not writing anything in such a long time. Things are a bit…hectic in my life right now, so that's why it last so long for a new chapter. I'm working on a scheme that says every week a chapter and I hope to keep this up. Let's say: every Friday a chapter, okay? I update every Friday and CJ will beta-ing my chappie after that. You know how to recognize a beta-ed chappie ;). SO, starting from this Friday, February 27, 2015

* * *

><p>"Mum, dad, I have to tell you something," Albus said. He was walking in his living room, from bench to bench.<p>

"No, no, no, not like that. That sounds ridiculous and-and-and…" he interrupted himself.

"Mum and dad, please don't hate me..." he tried, but realized it would be totally stupid to say something like that too.

"No, no, no!" he shouted. He turned around and tried again. Perhaps asking would help?

"Mum, dad?" he asked. That was wrong too. It looked like he was so insecure!

"No, no, that's totally not how…" he begun, but was so frustrated that he decided to shout.

"I'M GAY, OKAY?" He had shouted it. The ground was trembling and the wand in his hand was lighting up.

"_Shit!_" Albus screamed. Eric's favorite chair was now on fire and as quick as possible, he tried to fix it.

It had been a normal Wednesday evening for Albus. The whole evening, nothing had happened. He watched some tv – a muggle thing he picked up from Rose – and there it was. On the television had been a stupid muggle series where this stupid in-the-closet-gay just had his very emotional coming out scene. Albus despised him, because this guy dared to come out and he didn't. If even that guy could do it, he could do it too, couldn't he?

Yeah right. He couldn't. He was this total bitch that wasn't able to come out of the closet. Oh, how he missed Lily these days. Rose was sweet and helpful, but no one was ever able to get through him, the way Lily did. Perhaps it was time. Time to write her a letter and to discover where she had been hiding. She couldn't hide forever.

:: :: ::

_Dear Lily,_

_I hope that Hedwig II is able to find you, because I really need to talk to you. Things are getting a bit out of hand. With Rose, for example, or with me. Above all, things are getting out of hand with you. Where are you Lily? I know you're ashamed of yourself – ashamed, or even more - but no one is judging you. Everybody is missing you, instead of angry. Mum and dad aren't looking for you, nor is anyone else. We know that you need your time, but please, don't keep us at the outside. We love you and we miss you. We shouldn't do otherwise, because you're our family. Families stick together, no matter what._

_Please write me back or come back. It is lonely without you there._

_Al_

Lily sighted and put the letter on the kitchen table. It wasn't her kitchen table that she was putting this letter on. It wasn't even her chair she was sitting on. The only thing that was really hers was the letter in her hand. It made her realize that he was right. Al, of all people, was right. He had never been really good at expressing his feelings and this letter was thereby very special. Sadly enough she _wanted_ to hear Al's problems with Eric or if Rose and Scorpius were finally together or not – even though she missed a few months, she knew exactly who were meant for each other and who not. She _missed_ it. They would probably end up not like they were meant to be, if she wasn't there, Lily knew. Perhaps it was a bit selfish to say something like that about herself, but she knew it was true and she wasn't sorry for that. She liked to help her cousin and brother. She liked the way they thought of her. She wasn't this little girl anymore, but she was one of them and that made her proud.

Lily never intended to leave her home or her loved ones. Her future and the ones for her friends were going exactly the way she knew they would be. She loved her job as a columnist in the Daily Prophet. Scratching and deleting the rumors about her family, so they could live in a bit more peace than they had lived before. She remembered the press so well when her first day at Hogwarts started. Or at the World Cup. Or…yeah. The list went on and on. There had been rumors about everyone, but mostly not someone in particular. And then, the day came. The day that _she_ was the rumor of the day. The piece of trash in the paper. It had been the day she'd graduated from Hogwarts. Finding herself in a local magical pub, she hadn't even thought about someone following her. She had been with her best friends. Lorcan and Lysander Scamander, the twin she knew from birth and her lovely cousin Hugo. It was in that place, when Lorcan finally decided to make his move towards Lily and in the joy of their mutual feelings, they kissed. Lily and Lorcan were kissing, not in a very decent or even appropriate way, and in the middle of the pub. Her family and she had been a bit awkward, but afterwards laughingly about the whole incident. Lily and Lorcan became a couple and made sure that they wouldn't be this close in the sight of the press again, but that didn't stop the press writing about her - and only her -for a long time. It was one of the reasons why she stopped with her study in potions and started as a columnist. Every bit of gossip went straight towards her. It was a relief to stop so much drama for her family, until the moment came that everything went to far. The moment when she saw two pictures of the same guy, who she loved so much. After three years of being together - she just turned twenty three - it happened. The first picture showed her boyfriend buying an engagement ring. After seeing that picture, Lily had been so happy, she had informed her entire family about the fact. The next picture, which she got a few hours later, was her boyfriend proposing. To someone else. After searching for an answer, she found out that it wasn't her boyfriend who did this, but his very look-a-like and identical brother, Lysander. Lorcan had been so angry with her. How could she ever be thinking that he would cheat on her? After that, Lily discovered that she was pregnant. Lorcan would become a dad, but he didn't even want to talk to her. So Lily run.

:: :: ::

"So, Scamander, I heard some rumors," Cedric Vance began. He was a few years older than Lorcan, and was the leader of their department in the hospital.

"Do I even want to know?" Lorcan sighted. When Cedric came with rumors, they were mostly true or too absurd to be true. Seeing that Cedric didn't had a smile on his face, Lorcan was afraid.

"I guess someone has to tell you," Cedric answered. He smiled weakly at him and gestured that he should be sitting on a chair.

"You were in a relationship with Lily Potter, right?" Cedric asked him and Lorcan sighted immediately. This was the point that Cedric told him that Lily was engaged or even married. That she was better off without him and hadn't missed him the slightest.

"Yes, I was," he said. He had missed her. He had missed her so much. His reaction had been a bit extreme. He shouldn't have abandoned her in his life. The minute he realized where this really had been about, Lorcan realized he had to get her back, but not without the thing Lily wanted the most. He had bought a ring for her, a beautiful one. She just wanted him to propose and that had actually been the biggest compliment she could ever give him.

"Mate?" Cedric asked and he looked up.

"Yeah?"

"Lily's pregnant," was what Cedric said.

"Pregnant?" Lorcan asked and Cedric nodded. Pregnant. She was pregnant.

"But…who is the father?" he asked.

"I don't know. What I do know is that she has a big belly. Like really big," Cedric said and Lorcan nodded. So Lily did move on. Pregnant.

"How do you know all this?" Lorcan asked. Perhaps it would be a big rumor. Like really big. Like as in a pregnant belly big rumor.

"Lorcan, you do realize we work in a hospital and she's pregnant, don't you?" Cedric said. He laughed and Lorcan laughed immediately with him.

"Where is she?" he asked. He should talk to her. He really needed to talk to her. They could sort things out. They could…

"Lorcan, I just said that I didn't know who the father was, so I don't think it will be very convenient to walk into her room and to see her again. Give her some time. Besides: her family will be there, it'll be busy enough in there." Cedric patted his shoulder and walked away.

"Break is over, your patients are waiting," he added and Lorcan sighted again. What was he supposed to do?

:: :: ::

"I want…THIS bed!" Helga said, popping onto the massive king-sized bed that was standing in front of them.

"I bet you want that bed," Frank laughed. Seeing her on that bed, lying in that kind of composition, he just had to hold himself together.

"Is it too expensive? It is, isn't it? Yeah…oops, it really is. Let's look further!" Helga stood up, after double-checking the price tag. It really was a perfect bed. In her mind, she could see herself lying on that bed with a few children. All fitting in the same bed.

"Well, we can always buy a simple bed and use an expansion spell," she suggested and Frank laughed again. She didn't want that, because everybody knew that something like that didn't lay as nice as a real king-sized bed.

"Hey Frank?" she said and Frank gave her a smirk.

"Yeeeees?" he answered.

"If I ask my father for some money – he has too much anyways – do you think we can buy the bed then?" she suggested and he laughed.

"You want that bed that much, huh?" he said. He kissed her on top of her head and she smiled like little girl.

"It's perfect and you know it! We both can't pay it – I don't even know how we're going to pay our house – but we have to buy it!" Helga said.

"I paid our house, remember? Don't worry about that. If you pay the furniture, then that is settled," Frank joked and Helga pushed him away with a smile on her face.

"Okay, I'm gonna call my dad then," she said. She winked at Frank, as she knew what this would mean.

"Don't say that your dad is going to kill me!" he reacted and she just laughed.

"Well, you did use the moving-in-move, so now you have to deal with the consequences," she answered. She wiggled her eyebrows and he just laughed at her. The only thing he could do right now, was laughing. He was so happy. So happy to be with his girl. So happy that she wanted to move in. So happy to be together.

:: :: ::

"How is she?" Rose asked. She had insisted on going to the hospital – saying that if something happened to her, there would be enough people to take care of her. Scorpius stood by, somewhere in the back. She didn't really need to convince him, as he knew Lily very well.

"She's doing alright. It was a long journey and for a pregnant woman, it's very heavy," her mother answered.

"Lorcan is the dad, isn't he?" her dad asked and Rose nodded.

"She doesn't want to say to anyone, but she has to, sometime. She's almost six months now! But I'm glad she's back," Rose said and her mother smiled.

"Albus and Hugo are inside now. Plus Harry and Ginny, of course, but they don't want to leave her," her mother said. Rose laughed.

"You would kill me if I ever left everyone while being pregnant," Rose said and her mother laughed with her.

"Yeah, well, Lily was always a bit more like Ginny, so I guess we could somehow expect it," she said. Rose gave her mother a surprised look and her mother smiled at her.

"Ginny and Harry had to fix stuff, just like everyone else, but when Ginny discovered she was pregnant, she knew that Harry wasn't able to be the loving father he wanted to be. Even with Teddy, he was sometimes a mess. So Ginny walked away, giving Harry a chance to think about everything and two weeks later Harry decided that it would be okay to move on," her mother said. Rose was surprised. Her family didn't talk very much about what happened in the war or what happened soon after it. Everybody just seemed to be happy right now, but Rose realized that they were every day confronted with the fact that the war wasn't a nightmare. The scar on her mothers arm was a true scar and the fact that she had so many nightmares. It was also the reason why – despite the many fights – she and her father never went apart. They needed each other. They needed to find peace with the other.

"I'm going in now, is that okay?" Rose asked and the Healer nodded.

"Yes, but not for long. She has had to many visitors already, but just you and that's all!" answered the Healer. Rose waved sarcastically cheerfully at Scorpius – finally she could be without him – and walked into the room.

"Hi Lily," she said. Lily smiled weakly, but Rose could see she was in pain. Albus and Hugo sat there on the chairs and left them alone.

"James couldn't come?" Rose asked and Lily nodded.

"Way to busy with Quidditch of course. Couldn't expect anything else from him. You know who recently was replaced as Keeper in his team?" Lily asked. Rose shook her head.

"No? Who?" Rose answered. Lily laughed hard and smiled bright.

"Eric. Eric Vance. I laughed so hard when James told me," Lily said. Rose thought it was kinda weird. Lily had been gone for such a long time and still she acted like she hadn't been gone at all.

"Lil, when did you speak to James?" Rose asked.

"Oh, he didn't even know that I was gone, you know, because he's so busy with his Quidditch career. So we wrote up and down and he didn't even read the papers! So he didn't know anything and that was kinda…nice I guess? Look, Rose, I know that it wasn't fair to walk away from my problems, but I had to, you know? I really, really had to. He hurt me, so, so deeply and I know I hurt him too, but I can move on now. I can be a good, single mum, writing for my column and nobody is going to judge me for that," Lily said.

"She had had a bit of a morphine to suppress the pain," aunt Ginny explained. Rose laughed at that. Lily always had been a bit more Lily when she was drunk – or in this case: drugged.

"We talk later, Lily, okay? You better rest now," Rose said. She hoped that Lily then would act like a normal person.

"Don't drug her too much," Rose said to her aunt.

"Well, it seems to be a kind of muggle thing, but Harry insisted on using it. Apparently it is very helpful," aunt Ginny said. Still she looked a bit worried.

"It's just morphine, not poison," uncle Harry defended, but he looked a lot less worried then when he had to let Lily go.

"I think there's someone waiting for you," he added for Rose.

"Who?" Rose asked surprised.

"Your guard," grinned her uncle.

"Not funny! And knowing that Al is outside I doubt he really is waiting. He's probably just chatting like an old lady and I have to drag him along to my house," Rose sighted.

"One day, you will thank me, Rose," uncle Harry grinned.

"Not you too! And for the record: if that is ever going to happen – _if_ not _when_ – then you can be the one to tell my father!" Rose said, laughing at her own remark. Her uncle bit his lip, hiding his laughter.

"I will be at the front line, seeing how he'll react," he answered.

"Yeah, if you don't know how he will react. Did you know how he reacted when he became my guard? He almost insisted on talking to you, hoping you would fix this, but my mother calmed him – sadly," Rose said, standing at the door.

"Still, you will thank me one day. Mark my words."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 \\ New Year's Eve \\ WICELA

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only things I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.

**A/N**: I'M SO SORRY, IT'S NOT FRIDAY ANYMORE (actually, 10:53 pm when I write this, but I'm not finished, so I'm going to finish it tomorrow, because, I'm really tired and I didn't want to rush the chapter either, because you guys deserve something that isn't Denglish (Dutch-English). Forgive me, please!)! BUT I've got something to tell you guys. Exciting news! I'm dropping out of school and will be doing an au pair year in England (hopefully, like 90% sure I'll be accepted?), starting from September 2015! Okay my reasons are complex and waaay to complex to write here, so not going to say anything about that, but I do want to inform you that this means I'm not going to spend all of my time doing homework or that kind of stuff. Instead of that, I'll be able to do more writing and hopefully, I'll update sooner! Can't promise anything, but I will do my best :) – LOVE (this chapter is by the way non-conversational. I wanted to clear some things up and I hope you still like it!)

* * *

><p>Love wasn't the kind of word that Scorpius Malfoy was used to. His father didn't even use the word and his mother had some kind of problems with it too. Only the day when his grandmother Greengrass died was the day he heard his mother say, "I love you," to his father. That didn't mean they were a very cold family. Not in the slightest. They could have a really cozy and funny Friday evening with the three of them. They visited museums or important cities together. Mostly, their money showed their love as both those things were equally meaningless. Money had been a funny thing in their family. There was loads of it, but nobody really wanted to touch it. It looked like a curse. Like it was fake. Of course, in some ways the money <em>was<em> fake, because his grandfather Malfoy hadn't earned it in a rightful manner. Regardless, they used the money. To buy a house – and for his father: a new life.

Scorpius never particularly liked his own house or family. They could be a bit emotionless or severe. The war left scars all over them and Scorpius knew that his father had a debt he was never able to repay completely. It was a harsh life and a harsh world. Until the moment came he met new family. Teddy Lupin came into his life and thereby the son of his godparents, Albus Potter. Albus had been the most amazing kid Scorpius knew. Living into another mansion, he never really knew a lot of kids, but the kids he _did _know, weren't like Albus. Since he incurred fear in most children, they became his minions to manipulate and toy with until he got his way. Albus wasn't afraid of him. Albus just played with him and accepted him.

The next wonder came a second later. The second that Rose Weasley came to join them. Nowadays, he realized that perhaps her father had whispered his name into her ears since her birth, so she would hate him, but back then it looked like she never heard of him either. It had been weird. Weird and random. She stood there and looked at him. He did the same. They looked at each other and it was immediately over. She decided to talk and it had been the worst decision she ever made. Their first fight had begun and they had never really stopped.

Why did she hate him so much? Was it because of her father? At least his father didn't begin to talk about Albus's and her family until he got his Hogwarts letter.

Why did _he_ hate _her_ so much? It wasn't because of his father. It had been because it was the most natural thing to feel around her. It had been such an amount of feelings that exploded as soon as she came into the room.

Feelings that Scorpius finally understood. Feelings that were so much more complicated than he ever thought they were.

Scorpius Malfoy didn't believe in 'The One' or 'Meant To Be,' but he did believe this.

Rose Weasley was a very special girl.

:: :: ::

It had been five years ago. Five years, when something started out of nowhere. Their relationship had the same kind of beginning as the thing that was going on between she and another guy now. When Rose saw Nick, she had met him before. Not that she particularly liked him, but she also didn't particularly not liked him either. There was one S.M.L.-party where she learned that her fellow Studies of Ministry Law students were much more fun than she thought. Rose got drunker than she should've been and the next morning she woke up in Nick's apartment. Instead of that they were lying in some kind of decent muggle-film-morning-after kind of way; she had been lying on the floor. When she got up, she saw Nick lying on his bed, seeing every little detail of his naked body. Rose tried to sneak out, but Nick had heard her and with a bit of a blush on his face, he invited her for breakfast. That blush had been the first thing Rose noticed and liked about him. It was pure and cute. The blush showed Rose that Nick wasn't used to this kind of passionate drunk sex and the awkward morning after. He wasn't a total asshole about it and he didn't talk about it to anyone either. It was cute, really cute. So Rose accepted his offer and it ended in a five-year relationship with trust issues and a cheater. If there were anything Rose could've redone in her life, it would be the moment when she accepted Nick's offer. She should've said no. It would chance everything.

What kind of reason Scorpius had to screw, didn't even matter to Rose. They screwed. It wasn't only his fault. Asking her out, that had been his fault and it was only a correction when she said no. Before she would know, she would be thirty, left alone because of another cheater. Everybody knew Scorpius's heart. It didn't beat for one girl only. Even though Scorpius had told her he longed to a girl, one girl, she knew that it wouldn't be her. Noticing their age, they would probably be engaged or pregnant by five years later. Breaking up would be nasty. No. Saying no had been the rightful thing to say. The only thing to say, actually. There wasn't another option.

It still felt like she was not only ruining his mood, but also hers. Every time that he came by to check on her (every ten minutes) and every time he tried to speak to her (every hour), Rose wished that he left her alone. She counted the minutes she had to wait for him, but then she counted the seconds before he would leave. The end of the day had been the same since the day after New Year's Eve. He had smiled to her and when he looked at her, he would look like he was dreaming. Seeing that look, Rose could only think about the time they had been together. About how it had felt. How it really felt like. To be loved.

It was the feeling that Nick and she never had. They didn't had fireworks and sparkling things or glitters. They hadn't been unicorns on rainbows. They had been simple. And for then, simple had been enough. Rose didn't know how it felt to be loved like this. Like Scorpius had made her feel that night. That was something, she had never felt before and it pained her heart to walk away from that.

But was good to do so. She didn't even know him. All those feelings were based on everything they'd been through together. The fights, the ignorance and that one time at New Year's Eve. Perhaps this would be a good way to get to know him better, but Rose knew that after her second hearing – which was only in two weeks – decisions would be made and it would be over in half a year.

In the time of her parents, lawyers didn't exist in the Wizengamot. It was rare to even have a spokesperson on behalf of a defendant, but times were changing. The Muggle-born register demonstrated that Muggle's weren't even able to defend themselves, because nobody listened to them. Lawyers became necessary, because they would survey the case and had to be trusted. Lawyers were the ones who needed to drink a sip of truth serum, after and before the case, and answer a simple question: "Do you speak the truth?" This test wasn't hundred percent trustworthy, but it was better than in the Muggle courtyard. Her mother had told her everything about the whole process and making-off of this section in the Magical Law Department and Rose loved it. From the moment her cousins taught her how to stand up against Malfoy, she knew that there were people who couldn't learn that from someone. She wanted to be the one to defended them.

And now she was here. Doing the lawyer case of the century and every other lawyer was jealous of her. She was only twenty-five years old. Twenty-five. Most lawyers needed to prove themselves and be forty years old, if they didn't need to be older. The first lawyers were very experienced people of the age of fifty. When students finally wanted to take their program, they realized it wasn't easy to become a respected lawyer. Thirty years later made the first students now fifty years old and not very kind to the students that came in. Some of those people had been very jealous of Rose. She was well respected, but it had been the name of her parents that really made everyone thinking that about her. Even though Rose tried hard to show them this was her doing, not her parents, not everyone believed it. It changed when she accepted the offer of her boss. The offer to do a trial like this. A trial that was in conflict with what, her parents had fought for.

:: :: ::

Their house was almost ready, but Helga didn't want to talk to everyone that soon. She still wanted to enjoy their house and not share it with others. She wanted to keep dreaming, instead of facing reality. Reality wasn't that bad, perhaps, but it meant leaving the house for work or grocery shopping, while she wanted to stay in bed and be close to Frank. Today her parents would come to check out the house – and the bed her father had paid a fortune for. Her brother Godric said he came too. Most likely the best friends of her parents would come and make bad jokes. Fred told her he would pass by later, but Rox would come at the same time as her parents. Albus would visit them, of course, but without Eric and even Rose told her she would come – even though Scorpius said no when she suggested it. It was nice to have so many friends and family who cared about them, but it was sometimes she just wanted to be with Frank. They had their own house now. They didn't need to share her busy flat or his tiny, dirty apartment. In their own house, they were able to be alone and together, at the same time.

Helga was lying in her bed. Their bed. Their huge, king-sized, room filling bed. Frank, however, had left her hours ago, because he needed to go to work. Helga had said no to her work for the third time this week and she knew she had to work someday. Tomorrow, she promised Frank every day, but today she knew that tomorrow would really be tomorrow.

:: :: ::

Albus remembered the first time he kissed really well. It was with a girl whose name he didn't even remember. It was weird and it didn't feel right. He felt the same thing with the next girl. And the next. And so on. The girl wasn't the problem. She sometimes almost lost it when they kissed, while he was surprised that she felt anything. The girls were pretty or kind or smart, but none of that was what Albus liked. It was weird when Eric touched him if he felt bad. A simple gesture to tell him he was here for him, made Albus's heart bonk louder and louder. He thought it was because Eric told him he was gay. He thought he couldn't accept his best friend. He was wrong. He accepted it, but he didn't accept himself.

And then the invitation came. Albus showed up. Eric showed up. They spoke and Albus felt his raising heartbeat. He felt weird things again, but the more alcohol he drunk, the more relaxed he became. Eric touched his hand and he slowly smiled. He didn't sweated or anything. They leaned against each other, when truth-or-dare begun. Most people had already left. Rose hadn't and Rose knew. Rose, who always knew him better then he knew himself. Next to her was Scorpius, who smiled. When it was Rose's turn, Scorpius whispered something into her ear and that had started everything.

"I dare you, Albus, to kiss Eric," Rose had said. With a huge smile on their faces, Rose and Scorpius waited until he reacted. Albus smiled and turned to see Eric's face. Eric looked at the ground and didn't really react. Albus lifted Eric's head up and smiled. He kissed him and realized that this was the kind of things all those girls felt when they kissed. What started as a simple kiss, ended in the both of them drowning into each other. Drunk. Then it was Albus's time to give someone a dare. Rose had been to drunk to remember, but Albus didn't really know if Scorpius remembered. He gave Scorpius the same dare that Rose had given him.

"Kiss Rose," he'd said. They kissed too and that had been weird. According to Scorpius, he'd slept that night in his own bed, but Albus didn't really want to believe that. It wasn't his first priority either, because Eric had kissed him and _Merlin_ it felt fantastic.

:: :: ::

Eric visited his cousin as often as he was able to visit him. In this type of times, Cedric could be a real Healer. The time when Albus and he broke up for the first time, he'd talked to Cedric about it. Had he been too harsh? Had he pushed him too much? Did Albus love him enough to let him in again? It was the time that he and Albus were broken up for the shortest amount of times in their history. Two days. The longer they stayed together, the more they broke up and the longer it lasted to be back together again. This time was different. Different than all those times. It felt like Albus didn't even accept him, which was very logical. How could Albus accept him, if he couldn't even accept himself? So Eric walked away, knowing that it would be for the last time. If they would ever get back together, he wouldn't leave. It would be for forever and it would mean that Albus had to come out in order to get back together. He really wanted to help him and to say to him that everything was going to be all right. He really wanted to support him through the tuff time after telling everyone you love. He wanted to be there. He wanted it, so badly, but he couldn't be rejected one more time. If he would hear Albus's mum saying "they were such good friends" one more time, he would explode and tell everyone they weren't "just friends". But it wasn't his call to make. It was Albus's. Saying those things would make Albus hate him and end things for ever, so he really needed to be distant.

Distant. Really distant. When James came to him, saying they needed a new Keeper, Eric had said "yes". It was before he and Albus were broken up. The irony only hit him later. He didn't want to be James's Keeper. He wanted to be Albus's.


End file.
